Insights and highlights from IIBEC 2025

By Emma Peterson.

Get a glimpse of the IIBEC show through the eyes of The Coffee Shops crew members who were there!

The 2025 IIBEC International Convention and Trade Show was held in the first week of March at the Rosen Shingle Creek Hotel in Orlando, Florida. The show included four days of educations (and an auxiliary seminar), two days of trade show and a wide variety of networking opportunities (including a golf tournament, keynote and auction). The Coffee Shops™ crew was lucky to be on the ground at the show and got to experience it all firsthand.

The Coffee Shops’ President Heidi J. Ellsworth and Chief Operating Officer Karen Edwards made sure to check in via the RoofersCoffeeShop® YouTube channel. In their first check in, they came on live, ten minutes before the trade show floor opened. They chatted a bit about the incredible education opportunities that had already started, including getting to attend one of RICOWI’s meetings. Heidi added a bit about that committee, sharing, “I don't know anyone in roofing who isn't somewhat of a weather nerd and RICOWI does all these great investigations into hailstorms, high winds, hurricanes and now they're adding in wildfire investigations.” In addition to all the learning opportunities, the duo was excited about the networking events that had occurred, which included the IIBEC welcome reception and events from Johns Manville, Carlisle and USG.  

Coming into day two, Heidi and Karen highlighted the guests that were stopping by our soundstage, which was sponsored by IB Roof Systems! Karen shared, “I know that Kevin Morris from TUBOS is coming and he's bringing a consultant with him to talk about how they work together. And then we have some students that IIBEC brought over to talk about the future of building enclosure consulting.” Megan Ellsworth, The Coffee Shops’ multimedia manager and the soundstage manager for the IIBEC show, added a bit about that interview, sharing, “I think my favorite interview was with the college students. They received scholarships to attend IIBEC and they were architecture majors. It was just cool to hear their perspective because this was their first time really being introduced to the world of roofing and they were both kind of like, ‘Wow, I had no idea that this was a whole thing, a whole industry.’”

To close out the show, the pair sat down for a chat about some of their highlights from IIBEC 2025. Heidi brought up that we were able to record a Roofing Road Trips® live from the soundstage! She explained, “The episode live with Jason Stanley was great. He was talking about the growth of PVC, the growth of the consultant sector and more.” The duo also took a moment to look ahead at where The Coffee Shops™ will be next, with our main soundstage heading to ServiceCon in Houston, Texas. There will also be crew members at a variety of events around the country, from O.R.C.A.’s show to NERCA’s, so make sure to say hi if you see us!

Overall, the show was a great experience, and we can’t wait until next year. Megan summed it up, “It was my first time attending IIBEC, so I had no idea what the show was going to be, and it's such a wealth of knowledge in the sense that there are so many people at the show who know so much about roofing. And it's always nice to see our customers and partners and people we work with in person.”

You can watch all the interviews and check in on YouTube in our IIBEC 2025 playlist!